Alvaro Noboa is interviewed at Radio Sucre [SEPTEMBER-18-2012]



On September 18th, the political leader Álvaro Noboa maintained an interview with Vicente Arroba Dito. His words were transmitted by Radio Sucre and he talked about his government and campaign plans,  proposals to attract foreign investment, the renovation he is implementing in the political party PRIAN, and the political persecution he receives from the State.

TEXTUAL TRANSCRIPTION

Journalist: Vicente Arroba Ditto

Vicente Arroba Ditto: 7.30 on the dot. Now, if we have him on the telephone, as we have been announcing, and which will be repeated today at 5.30. With Counselor Álvaro Noboa and it will be repeated, as we said, via Sistema 2 1080, Cupido 95.3, and Radio Sucre, today at 5.30 pm.

Counselor Noboa, good morning, via Cadenar for Ecuador and the world.

Álvaro Noboa:  Mr. Arroba, good day. This interview is an honor for me, and it gives me great pleasure to speak to you after all these years.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right, my dear Attorney, so many years and we haven’t spoken. We’ve got to speak a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, about the country, about your situation, of the companies that are having problems with the IRS. Let’s begin. First the issue with the IRS. In what situation is said problem, Counselor Noboa?

Álvaro Noboa:  Let’s see, at the moment, I am the largest individual tax payer in the country. Grupo Noboa is one of the groups that pays the most consolidated taxes among all the companies in the entire country. Many of the roads, schools, hospitals in Ecuador are made with our taxes. I feel proud of that, I don’t owe one cent to the Treasury and all of it has been nothing other than a dirty campaign on the part of the politicos, on the part, then, of Economist Carlos Marx, on the part of Economist Rafael Correa, who know that I am going to make it to the second electoral round, first or second, we’ll see. That will make me the new President of Ecuador, because in Ecuador, today, there is more anti-Correa sentiment than pro-Correa sentiment.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  But they speak of $100 million dollars that Bananera Noboa owes to the state, Counselor Noboa?

Álvaro Noboa:  They can talk about a lot of things, and prevaricate about many things. I don’t owe a cent.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Now, speaking of the political situation in Ecuador. On this very day, what is yoru view of the political situation of the country?

Álvaro Noboa:  The country has various problems. I have carried out a survey, a survey which I asked two things:  What is your voting preference, and what are the country’s problems?

In regards to the voting we have Rafael Correa at 36%, Álvaro Noboa at 21%, Guillermo Lasso at 3%, Lucio Gutiérrez at 2%, Alberto Acosta at 2%. In regards to the problems of the country, they speak of unemployment, economic situation, which is to say that although they are employed, they feel poorer, because even thought wages are better, they are facing a high cost of living, above all in food, in electricity, and the third problem that appears in the survey, is crime. When a poor man is robbed, everything is taken from him, they rape his wife, they commit a barbarity and then some against him. So they see this government like a government that hasn’t protected them.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Now, the three problems that you have been able to detect via your surveys.  It’s 26 minutes to 8, 26.  Being you, and  becoming President of the Republic, how would you attack each of those problems?

Álvaro Noboa:  Right, the economic problem. There are many countries that have had situations like Ecuador’s and that have changed via the following means: first, I’ll give you an example of the countries: Chile is one of them, South Korea, is another of them; Japan itself, after World War II, the United States, Brazil and now China. They focused on transforming the poor into a wealthy middle class. How is that done? And what do they consider a wealthy middle class? They consider that every man of a wealthy middle class should have a cement house, a car, they should have a high level of education, a specialized education, whether through a Technical College or University; they should have heath care, judicial security and neighborhood protection.

In order to achieve those goals, one needs the following:  that the level of knowledge of the worker  and the poor Ecuadorian is raised. How is that achieved? Through the arrival of foreign and Ecuadorian investment with products like computers, with products like cellular phone production, with development in tourism, with a technologized agricultural development, with the first rate development of fish production, etc. etc. That worker should first receive, from those companies, a training program. That training program which is very common in developed countries. In that specific area, they will make him a specialized worker, and therefore more desirable, and therefore better paid. For that, national and foreign investment has to come in response to a friendly invitation, something which is not happening under this government. You have to give them a lower Income tax so that they don’t choose other countries, but rather choose ours, but multiplied by a thousand investors, it makes the Treasure that much bigger, and so, since the Treasury Bank has become much bigger, a better social service can be provided.

That investor, besides having a lower Income Tax rate that multiplied by a thousand, I repeat, will increase the Treasury, also needs to have judicial security and guarantees. He needs to know that his business is never going to be expropriated; he needs to know that he’s not going to be encouraging a class war between his workers and owners and all of that is very important.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That is all true, my dear Attorney, it is a great truth, Counselor Noboa. But look, Counselor Noboa, there is a situation that is concerned as well with labor laws facing the foreign businessman and you, being an international businessman should know it as well. In this case, do you believe that the labor laws, on this very day, benefit or attract foreign investment, or do they need to be given some kind of change so that foreign investment would come more quickly under your government, if you were President?

Álvaro Noboa:  I get along very well with the worker. We don’t have unions or class struggles. There are small centers in 110 companies that for part of the Grupo Noboa, for that reason I have to explain that as a Group, it’s one of the biggest taxpayers, there are small centers which fix problems immediately. The problem is when the government sends people from Alianza País, lawyers from Alianza País, to throw gas on the fire, that’s what bad. It’s not the law. It’s good that the workers have worker’s defense, that social security is paid on their behalf, that their savings plans are paid, that they have IESS credits, that they have Social Security hospitals or private ones via Social Security. All that is good. What is not good is class conflict.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  You would eliminate class conflict, in what way, Mr. Attorney Noboa?

Álvaro Noboa:  By not encouraging it. Because the current government encourages it via the Alianza País lawyers, via the same labor authorities, they go around provoking the workers so that they attack the owners, that is bad.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  On the level of social security – it’s 20 minutes to 8 in the morning, 20 minutes to 8 – on the level of social security, on this very day, what improvements would you make?

Álvaro Noboa:  No, social security is in a good moment. It’s one of the countries that pays the most social security in the world and for that reason there is so much BIESS credit now for housing, in that sense I think that it’s good. I wouldn’t allow the Ecuadorian state to put a hand into the Social Security funds, which has become huge, because imagine if all your workers and ours, between what they contribute and what the owner contributes, it’s 20% of income, that is a spectacular flow of funds, or that is to say, 20% of all Ecuadorian salary ends up in the Institute of Social Security, and what is important is that those funds serve for hospitals, serve to give housing loans, serve for all that and when the government has problems in its hospitality budget, that they don’t touch, I repeat, the Social Security funds.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  In what form would your government – it’s 18 minutes to 8, 18 minutes to 8 in the morning, here with Attorney Álvaro Noboa via Radio Sucre, headquarters of CADENAR, this interview will be repeated at 5.30 via Sucre itself, Sistema 2, 1080, and Cupido 95.3.

Counselor Noboa, being President how would you support the Municipalities and the Provincial Councils?

Álvaro Noboa:  In the same way that we are supporting them, but it would be 10 to 1, because my aim is that the State of Ecuador becomes a state that is 10 times richer than it is now. You must remember that we have natural resources similar to Norway, Sweden, Singapore, South Korea, they are 10 times richer. Taiwan, Chile itself is getting closer to the first world, and that is where we want to get. China has become the second richest country in the world. How? Via the same rules that I am suggesting, of business development. I consider myself to be a man of the right in what is business development.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Correct, Counselor…

Álvaro Noboa:  My Vice-President will be a man of the left, to watch over that money that I expect to generate mountains of as I have done in my private life. I expect to repeat that in my state life, that this money be used for social service.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Counselor Noboa, do you believe that the left and the right can go hand in hand in one State?

Álvaro Noboa:  In China, that’s already happened. China is a communist country, but it uses the rules of the rightwing for business development.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  But it has a right wing Vice-President or President?

Álvaro Noboa:  Effectively, they have, although they call it the Comiburo… the Comitee, it continues to be communist, they can even install a rightwing Chief of State. Or, that is to say, the right and the left can work hand in hand.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  I believe that yes, it’s definitely like that, if it’s not that they are completely and absolutely closed, because there are so many good things about the left, just as there are so many good things of the right, that is a great truth.

Álvaro Noboa:  Clearly…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  It is 14 minutes or 15 minutes to 8. Yes, Counselor…

Álvaro Noboa:  That has been the problem of Ecuador in the last years. Economist Correa is very dogmatic. He is of the line of Fidel Castro and Fidel Castro has already racked up 50 years of poverty for being dogmatic. The Chinese got bored of being poor and took up the rules of the rightwing in regards to production.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Now, Counselor, the part that we are in is the economic part. Now regarding the student part, but before that, what support would you give to the Police and the Armed Forces?

Álvaro Noboa:  Great support, a Police force which is constantly becoming more technological.  We can bring people from abroad, who will help us apply technology, like, for example, the city of New York, which is very technified and has changed, therefore, in the last years with it last mayors. Giuliani was the first who applied technology and that changed everything  and the crime rate fell extremely.  When they say – remember the issue of the tablecloths in the Congress, the issue of the Constitutional Tribunal, who, breaking the law were removed and they told the Police to remain still and to do nothing? That shocks them completely. It’s as if you were to tell a doctor that a patient is dying but that he shouldn’t save them.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right…

Álvaro Noboa:  And so, for that reason they need political support and technology to carry out their duties.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Counselor Noboa – 13 minutes to 8, 13 to 8 – here with Counselor Álvaro Noboa, pre-candidate for President of the Republic via Radio Sucre, Cupido, and System 2.

Counselor Noboa, on the level of education, what would you do about education? Oh, no, sorry, before speaking about education, would you respect other powers of State, whether it were Judicial or Legislative?

Álvaro Noboa:  If they are not respected, investment will not come. It has to be respected because the investor has to feel that Congress does not exist in order to carry out expropriations; that there are no judges who will have them be extorted or expropriated by command of the Chief of State. I have to respect them so that investment will come here.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  You are totally inclined towards foreign investment. Is there another alternative?

Álvaro Noboa:  National, I would like to repeat. Not just foreign; national. Here are – except us, as a group, we continue to invest, despite all the brutal attacks we have had – but other people, who the minute they have a penny they take it abroad. So, therefore, that national investment also has to return, this money of investors has to return to Ecuador the moment that there is confidence again.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right, but you are totally in favor of foreign investment. Do you have any other, any other project that is not just foreign investment, that will really take the country out of the economic lull which we are experiencing?

Álvaro Noboa:  No, I am inclined towards money being made with money, so that between national investors and foreign investors, we will have the capital, always and only when investors are required to provide training for our workers whose salaries will double and triple once they are trained.

Also to develop technical professions that need to go hand in hand with those companies. If they are petroleum engineering companies, we need to have the best petroleum engineering schools. If they are banana producing companies, we should have the best school for banana production. Just imagine it:  Ecuador is the top banana producing country in the world, and yet Honduras, with much less production than Ecuador, is where the best university for banana production is. Here, if at the moment Ecuador  develops first class technical schools for corn, for flowers, for vegetables, those farmers will produce double, and therefore will earn double or triple or quadruple what they earn….  Just imagine that in the United States a corn producer is a rich, middle class gentleman, while an Ecuadorian corn producer is a poor man in the majority of cases.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s true…

Álvaro Noboa:  What’s the corn producer got? Technique, that technique he learned at school….

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  But, excuse me, Counselor Noboa. The North American corn producer, or the North American wheat producer, also receives a state subsidy that they don’t get here.

Álvaro Noboa:  That’s true, it’s more than a subsidy. It’s a good market system. Look, they, what they do is, when corn goes below a certain level, they buy it.  At that time, when corn is sky-high, and when corn is sky-high, they sell it, and as it’s the state, they have the capacity of saving it for years, and therefore they maintain a stable price for the corn-producer.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That is to say, there is no subsidy?

Álvaro Noboa:  No, it’s not a subsidy. It’s not, I say:  they buy it when it’s low… there, yes, they subsidize it. When it falls to a certain level. But when it goes up, and it’s already at a high, like right now, they sell it, and selling it makes the price go down.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Logical.

Álvaro Noboa:  And the corn-producer ends up with a good average.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right. Not like here, when it’s low, everybody dies of hunger, and when it’s high, they also die of hunger because they are exploited.

Álvaro Noboa:  That’s right, that’s right. Because when it goes up, they import…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right…

Álvaro Noboa:  So, and when it’s low, they buy low. So, they have liquidated it.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right, Counselor Noboa. Speaking about these things. You have said that money brings money, and that’s a big truth. It’s a kind of slogan. Just like, Ecuador, Forward, Ecuador. Do you have a slogan yet for your campaign?

Álvaro Noboa:  I have various slogans. “I know how it’s done.”  I also use the word, “Adelante”  and the main slogan will perhaps be: “The poor will become middle class.”  And from being poor, to rich middle class, they will have family cars, cement houses, healthcare, social protection, and good education and to bring it, as they say – just to give you an idea – this Saturday we are having a Popular National Assembly where not only the PRIAN is invited, but all those from the independent and opposition parties. We are going to raffle off, among the Ecuadorian people, a house, a car, a job and a scholarship to a university or technical school, which are the ingredients of my campaign. We are going to hold the raffle, saying, if we from the Grupo Noboa can give this from the money that we have, then imagine the day in which I am the State, with the money of State, I’ll be able to give it on a national level.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Nevertheless they say that your companies are responsible for the rise in the price of bread.

Álvaro Noboa:  Look, I knew that they were going to touch on that issue one of these days…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  It’s not been touched on yet?

Álvaro Noboa:  The one responsible for the rise of international wheat, and I have a study where bread, for flour, would rise 0.003 cents. So, in the case of Mi Comisariato, for example, the price of bread is not going to go up. If the baker is putting it up, it’s not because of me.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Right. Counselor, turning to politics – it’s 6 minutes before 8 in the morning, until 8.10 we are going to be with you, because I have a number of questions to get through.  It’s 6 minutes to 8 in the morning. Counselor Noboa, speaking of politics. What is your idea regarding one sole candidate for President of the Republic from the left or the right? What we see is that you are not put off by a left or rightwing union. What do you have to say, your opinion, your idea about one sole candidate for President.

Álvaro Noboa:  I am in favor of Guillermo Lasso, Lucio Gutiérrez, the PRE and the united left uniting behind my candidacy, but each one of them has 2% or 3% and I have 21%. They want to put up a President, but I believe it should be me, due to my 21%, whose turn it is to put up a President. So it’s very simple, it’s they’re issue.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  According to which survey do you have 21%, Counselor Noboa. Because of the ones that have been published, you are around 2%, 4%, just like Lucio.

Álvaro Noboa:  Mr. Arroba, you have known of me  since ’98.  In the opposition surveys, where they put me at 7th, I ended up first in ’98, and in the others , I ended up 2nd, and in 2006, they put me at 7th, and I beat Correa in the first round, when he said that he was going to win in only one round.  So, therefore, I have to believe in mine.  I have to believe in mine which are carried out, not just by international pollsters, but by Mercanoboa, which does thousands of surveys on the business level, and that use the methods prescribed by the books on the political level for those same surveys. We, just like we do in house, we don’t spare a cent. At times, the pollster, or the employees, they go, I believe to three or four neighborhoods and with that they have the survey. I survey, for it to be meaningful, has to have a fleet of pollsters which we don’t save on.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Yes.

Álvaro Noboa:  And, I’ll say it again:  I still remember with amusement how Santiago Nieto, who is my friend, put me at fifth, sixth, seventh in 2006, and in the 2006 motorcade  for the first round, he calls me and says, “Álvaro, how are you? I want to tell you that over the last 15 days you’ve made a comeback and you’re now in first place.”

I also want to show you another proof. We are in the counting of the affiliates, and from 180,000 affiliates, they’ve been able to cut out 30,000 double signatures that they won’t take into consideration and we are already at 150,000. But we’ve submitted 200,000 more affiliate signatures from throughout the country, and that puts us, together with Alianza País, which isn’t a party, but rather a movement, as one of the two political forces with the greatest number of affiliates. It’s very easy to get people to join, because they have said to my face: “I voted for you in ’98, I voted for you  in 2002, 2006, and I am going to keep on voting for you until this country becomes a rich country.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  But, Counselor Noboa, you say that you would call on all the possible pre-candidates for the Presidency to unite behind your candidacy.  Two minutes to 8, 2 minutes to 8. But the other pre-candidates are saying the same thing;  each one wants the others to unite behind them.

Álvaro Noboa:  Sure, but they want to be President.  Well, how are they going to be President with 2%?

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right, but in any case is that the only stumbling block that you’ve not been able to remove to this day in order to achieve… do you believe that…?

Álvaro Noboa:  That’s right. Perhaps you can help. I’ll name you Ambassador right now, and you can go and tell them:  Fine, carry out a survey together with Álvaro Noboa and let’s see how the survey turns out.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Counselor Noboa…

Álvaro Noboa:  Guillermo Lasso, who I believe is your friend, and my friend as well, they know him in Guayaquil as The Bank of Guayaquil , but the rest of the country also knows that he was part of the Mahuad government, and the biggest crisis that this country has ever had in the year 2000, that he’s declared himself to be of the rightwing, when the left is what rules in this country. So, there’s no chance for him and for that reason he’s spent, the newspapers say, $5, 900,000 dollars, and he’s got back 3%.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Now…

Álvaro Noboa:  While meanwhile I have a 14 year career. It took Mandela 40 years to reach power, nobody criticized him.  They first thing they ask me is: again, Counselor Noboa…? Nobody says that to Mandela.  Fighting again, Mandela?  So, well…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  It’s one minute to 8.  You have reminded me of several things, my dear Counselor Noboa. I thought the conversation was going to go a little more…  now we’re going to be out of time, now it’s going to be shorter.

Álvaro Noboa:  I am open to it being longer, there’s no problem on my part.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  It’s 8 o’clock on the dot, 8 on the dot. Okay, Counselor. But look, you have reminded me of several things, refreshing, refreshing, and refreshing all that we have done. Do you believe that unless there is one sole candidate, there will be no way to beat Correa?

Álvaro Noboa:  No, I believe that in 2006 I beat Correa against eight other candidates, and I have better news for you:  all those who supported Correa in the second round in 2006, are now against Correa. SO for that reason, it’s very likely that I will beat Correa in the first round like I did in 2006. But in the second round, surely, by my making it to the second round, Correa is going to lose, because he’s not going to have León Róldos going in his favor; he’s not going to have the MPD in his favor, which he had before; he’s not going to have Pachakutik in his favor, which he had; he’s not going to have the PRE in his favor, which he had; he’s not going to have any of the others, even Sociedad Patriótica, which granted the freedom to vote, which was a way of splitting the vote in favor of Correa. He’s not going to have any of those votes in the second round.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  But at that time, Correa was not so strong as he is now.

Álvaro Noboa:  Fine, but I also want to tell you that in politics – and you’ve experienced politics – when the fall begins, it’s very difficult to stop it…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right.

Álvaro Noboa:  In Montecriti, he had 80%, now he’s at 36%.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s also very true. Some say 40%, others say 36%, but all right.

Álvaro Noboa:   Fine, give him 40% if you want.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right.

Álvaro Noboa:  From 80 to 40, he’s fallen by half. He can fall from 40 to 20.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s right, you are right. But beforehand… let’s see, let’s talk about the political panorama. What will happen if Abdalá Bucaram also runs for President?

Álvaro Noboa:  Nothing different will happen.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  With his candidacy?

Álvaro Noboa:  He’ll have his niche of votes which will take away from Correa’s because the PRE has got used to voting for Correa. When the PRE comes out to vote for their own candidate, it will take votes from Correa.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Counselor Noboa, something that you haven’t mentioned. I believe it is important for your candidacy in the future. When you were President of the Federal Reserve, precisely in the Abdalá government, what happened?

Álvaro Noboa:  What happened is that the interest rates went down and the monetary reserves went to their highest levels and what happened is that I didn’t have one charge of corruption brought against me, so therefore, I think I did an excellent job.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Do you believe that current interest rates should come down as well, and how far do you think they should come down?

Álvaro Noboa:  Well, the international level of interest rates has fallen 4% and here in Ecuador there is plenty of money, and that I believe is what they accuse Lasso of: how can the banks have the interest rates so high.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Now, What are you going to do with a country totally in debt and, what’s more, with all of the petroleum mortgaged for several years more?

Álvaro Noboa:  At the moment that I bring a thousand multi-national companies here, petroleum will be nothing more than one more aspect of Ecuadorian production.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  That’s also very true, my dear Attorney. Now, politically, what is your strategy for the future, when are you going to launch your candidacy? The National Electoral Council has accepted, you, it hasn’t accepted you, if it has accepted you, when will you officially launch your campaign? When will you decide who will be your Vice-Presidential candidate? Where will it be and when will you begin to put together the lists, given that a number of legislators who you have had, or Assembly Members, have departed from your ranks, beginning with Vicente Taiano?

Álvaro Noboa:  Okay, I’ll answer both. I am going to launch my candidacy as soon as possible, and the law, I believe dictates that October 15 is the first day on which I can register.  And with regard to the Assembly Members: except for the extraordinary figures with their own merit, like Annabella Azín de Noboa, who is going to be a candidate for Guayas, except Luis Morales who is going to be a candidate for Tungurahua, except María Elena Pontón, who is going to be a candidate for Guayas as well, for the rest we have put out a public convocation for people, 18 years and older, looking for young people so that they are at least 50% of our national level lists. Because half the population is young. If half the population is young, those young people have the right to have at least 50% of the Assembly Members and that is what’s going to happen in our party.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Counselor Noboa – the attorney Álvaro Noboa via Radio Sucre, Sistema 2, and Cupid. It’s 8.05, 8.05.  The Noboa Barcelona brothers, are you going to take account of them, or not?

Álvaro Noboa:  Yes, yes, I am going to take them into account.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Candidates for…?

Álvaro Noboa:  Well, I would love it if Lucho, who is an immigrant, since he’s an American resident, represents the immigrants in the United States. In that way, it won’t cause a conflict with his residency. And if Toño Noboa would be a Guayas candidate with Annabella.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Perfect. And how will you conduct your relationship with the communications media? Will it be strict? Would there be true freedom of expression?  When they bring up any political issue with you, would you really take reprisals? would you be benevolent? what would happen?

Álvaro Noboa:  Let’s see in real life. Since ’98, have you ever seen me take reprisals  against the communications media, which has ripped me to shreds? No…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  No, absolutely not.

Álvaro Noboa:  Well, then, I wouldn’t do it as a leader, either.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  As a leader you wouldn’t either.

Álvaro Noboa:  With ECUAVISA, we have had our differences of opinion. We are now in a honeymoon period. With El Universo, we are in a honeymoon period. With Radio Sucre, and you yourself have let me have it hard several times, we are in a honeymoon period.  So then…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  No, I’ve never let you have it, because we share the same rights, definitively. We’ve vacillated, yes, but we’ve never let you have it.  Irritated, yes, but we’ve never let you have it…

Álvaro Noboa:  In that way, I, I respect the Press. In that, I’m the same…. in the United States, sometimes they let Clinton and Obama have it hard, and yet they keep respecting the freedom of expression. Each one has the right to say what they want to.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  And that marriage will last, or will there be a divorce?

Álvaro Noboa:  No, that marriage will last, just as it’s lasted since ’98 until now. It will last until death.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Okay, my dear attorney, we have 3 minutes left to say goodbye. One message from the heart, with feeling, with love and endearment to your country, to your country Ecuador.

Álvaro Noboa:  The most important message is that, although they vacillate, I will do like Mandela: if it takes me 40 years of fighting so that the poor of Ecuador become a wealthy middle class, with a cement house, with a car, with healthcare, with specialized education that allows them to earn better salaries and with neighborhood security, I will do those 40 years.  It’s that I believe that with this candidacy I am going to win, but if God doesn’t want it that way, you will see me again in the next one and in the one after that and the one after that… so, you have to save that question:  “Again, Counselor Noboa?” Of course, if we continue to be poor. While we are still poor, I am going to continue seeing to it, fighting for my country.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Fine, off you go… Listen, one last question, one  last. And your relations with Pachakutik, MPD, the indigenous, the blacks…

Álvaro Noboa:  I have gone to see all of them. I have called them, I’ve spoken with Lucio, I have spoken with all of them. But I will tell you, they’re at 2% and each one wants to be President!  I no longer know what to suggest to them.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Listen, when are we going to do a survey? But let’s do a survey….

Álvaro Noboa:  Let’s do it together and you can send radio observers.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Look, I…

Álvaro Noboa:  I do them at least once a month and I’ll authorize radio observers to be sent.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  I’ll tell you one thing, for us, we haven’t done it with the best pollsters because the economic situation is more difficult every day. But we have done, as we call them, “primitive” surveys and we do them in every capital of the province and really what that survey says is much more, because they are all samples. The ones here are of volume, so we can carry out 5000 samples in 24 provinces. What I want to say is that we are going to have 20,000 or 30,000 responses, and those are never mistaken. In that way we’ll talk about surveys, my dear attorney.

Álvaro Noboa:  Then do one about us and you can tell me how many are for Lasso…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  No, no, no…

Álvaro Noboa:  I’ll make you an even easier one:  How many people in the radio are with Lasso and also how many are with Correa.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Listen, you want, you want to know that? Do you have a little time?

Álvaro Noboa:  Yes.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Okay, let’s carry out a telephone survey, at this moment, let’s see what they say.

Álvaro Noboa:  Okay.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Are you sure? You accept?

Álvaro Noboa:  Yes, but wait… Unfortunately you already announced it, it’s got to be spontaneous.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Okay….

Álvaro Noboa:  Because, having heard the announcement, Lasso’s people and Correa’s people are going to call in droves.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  No, but now, now, now, now, it’s spontaneous.

Álvaro Noboa:  Fine, do it…. but it doesn’t have…. what I am proposing, has to be…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Let’s see. here is one, here is a call: 2292109.  For whom would you vote? Good morning.

Caller 1:  Good morning, for Counselor Álvaro Noboa, until death!

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  All right, okay. You see, you made them call. Right now, you made them call. Hahahahahaha.

Álvaro Noboa:  Hahahhahha

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Here we have another call. Let’s see. Let’s see.  Another call. By cell phone. Good morning.

Caller 2: Good morning.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Who would you vote for?

Caller 2:  For Alvarito.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Alvarito, there it is. Ayayayyaya, we got it right on the mouth. Let’s see. It would seem that via Radio Sucre, you were convincing. In 109, good morning.

Caller 3:  Always, Álvaro Noboa.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Álvaro Noboa, it can’t be!  Let’s see, let’s just see, look, I am amazed…. for who, for who this time… In 119, good morning.

Caller 4: I’ve voted every time for him and I will keep on doing so.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Fine, thank you very much. No one has spoken of this, let’s see, let’s just see… from a cell phone. Good day.

Caller 5: For Counselor Álvaro Noboa.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Okay, thank you very much, my dear friend.  Why another number, why another number…. in 109, good morning. For whom would you vote?

Caller 6:  For whom would I vote? For Counselor Álvaro Noboa.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Ehehehheh. Okay, no more, Counselor! Hahahhahah. You gave it to us right in the smacker. I promise that this has been spontaneous. I promise on all that is sacred in the world…. for my grandchildren, my children, and all the world.

Álvaro Noboa:  So stop be amazed, then!

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  It’s true, I am amazed.

Álvaro Noboa:  It’s that they go, wherever you’d like, and they say, “Correa 80%” and they leave them all scared, and they say, “Lasso is a monster, he’s at 15,” and they leave them all scared…

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Well…

Álvaro Noboa:  Because, I know that you are going to vote for me.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  It depends, it depends…

Álvaro Noboa:  Well, so then I am going to work hard enough so that you’ll vote for me.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  No, I’ll tell you something, with all that we’ve heard today, really we’ve liked it very much, if it becomes a reality.  There is a situation, of you in the Federal Reserve, it’s a real truth what occurred in the Federal Reserve and the county had been pretty destroyed and you achieved lowering the interest rates and you were able to rebuild the monetary reserves, that’s amazing, my dear Counselor Noboa.

Álvaro Noboa:  Thank you very much for those words.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  And it’s true. Okay. Now, yes. Thank you, Counselor, and we’ll leave you with some last words.

Álvaro Noboa:  Okay, invite me again.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Surely…. Listen, but you have to come here, you have to come here.

Álvaro Noboa:  With pleasure, with pleasure.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Okay, Counselor, you behave.

Álvaro Noboa:  Hugs.

Vicente Arroba Ditto:  Thank you.

Álvaro Noboa:  Hugs.